Oculus Rift - Dev Kit Discussion [Orders Arriving]

I'm super excited about OR but I just had a terrible thought. What if someone hacks your computer and takes over your OR? They could scare you to death with it.
 
I'm super excited about OR but I just had a terrible thought. What if someone hacks your computer and takes over your OR? They could scare you to death with it.
They don't even need to do that, they can just convince you to try some demo that gives you a seizure, or get you to play that one person's deep sea exploration thing upon which you have a heart attack when spoiler
a shark eats you
.
 
I'm more concerned about the future when true VR exists and we're able to experience sensation through our games. Randomly jolting people with excruciating pain seems like a bigger issue than getting the shit scared out of you.
 
I have to push these bad boys as far from my face as possible, otherwise my eyelashes touch the lenses and oil them up real nice and make everything blurry :


Oh shit. This is the first legit concern I've read about using the OR. I have really long eyelashes, and that sounds really annoying.
 
Something about the usage of audio just occurred to me...

How about attaching microphone onto Oculus Rift? When you speak, scream etc. those noices would echo and bounce around in the game world adding even more immersion.

Granted, hearing outside noises other than yours through the mic inside the game world would not do good for the experience.
 
Something about the usage of audio just occurred to me...

How about attaching microphone onto Oculus Rift? When you speak, scream etc. those noices would echo and bounce around in the game world adding even more immersion.

Granted, hearing outside noises other than yours through the mic inside the game world would not do good for the experience.

Hey You, Pikachu! or Pokemon Snap on Oculus Rift.
 
Just placed my order and super excited. I tried it a little at E3's indiecade, and have a few friends who are indie developers with their own, but crazy excited to have one for personal use. I still haven't done any of the tech demos people seem to be most excited about nor have I played HL2 / Doom. I've also been learning the basics of Unity so that I might try my hand at crafting some simple experiences myself (I'm already familiar with 3d modeling/animation).

Any chance production has picked up at all and I might actually expect my order to ship in early September? Any word on if anyone who ordered in early July has started getting their orders already?

Or should I just be realistic and expect it to come sometime in Oct-Nov?

I'm in the US, btw.
 
Wow... Just received my kit. Set it up. I've only had five-ten minutes with it, and the Rift Rollercoaster... but I can already tell this thing will be special.

That said, I couldn't fit it with my glasses in without pushing the lenses ALL the way back which severely hurts the illusion, and without my glasses, I am soooo near-sighted that it was impossibly blurry.

After breakfast i'll try popping in the "C Cup" inserts for the severely near-sighted, and hopefully that will help.

I'll report in later.
 
Wow... Just received my kit. Set it up. I've only had five-ten minutes with it, and the Rift Rollercoaster... but I can already tell this thing will be special.

That said, I couldn't fit it with my glasses in without pushing the lenses ALL the way back which severely hurts the illusion, and without my glasses, I am soooo near-sighted that it was impossibly blurry.

After breakfast i'll try popping in the "C Cup" inserts for the severely near-sighted, and hopefully that will help.

I'll report in later.

I am really looking forwards to your further impressions.
 
Is there a trick to fitting the lenses into the rift? There seems to be a lot of friction when turning them under those plastic flaps. I'm always afraid I'll break it if I twist too hard. :p

Also, I was up late last night trying to figure out why unity demos were not detecting the rift. Answer: even if you have a 64 bit operating system, you need the x86 Visual C++ redistributable. I was coming from a fresh OS installation, so I didn't have that one yet.
 
Is there a trick to fitting the lenses into the rift? There seems to be a lot of friction when turning them under those plastic flaps. I'm always afraid I'll break it if I twist too hard. :p

Also, I was up late last night trying to figure out why unity demos were not detecting the rift. Answer: even if you have a 64 bit operating system, you need the x86 Visual C++ redistributable. I was coming from a fresh OS installation, so I didn't have that one yet.
Weird, on a completely fresh 64-bit Windows 7 home premium installation, I don't think I had a problem with that. Maybe I got lucky and some game or SDK installed it.

Also, my lens cups if anything didn't have much friction. I kept thinking they would unscrew and fall out or something.
 
Is there a trick to fitting the lenses into the rift? There seems to be a lot of friction when turning them under those plastic flaps. I'm always afraid I'll break it if I twist too hard. :p

When you have a brand new Rift the friction may be a little much. I had a similar problem at first, so then I tried anti-clockwise twist, which seemed to help. And it also helps to not be afraid to break it, because I don't think it's as easy as you think :)
 
Wow... Just received my kit. Set it up. I've only had five-ten minutes with it, and the Rift Rollercoaster... but I can already tell this thing will be special.

That said, I couldn't fit it with my glasses in without pushing the lenses ALL the way back which severely hurts the illusion, and without my glasses, I am soooo near-sighted that it was impossibly blurry.

After breakfast i'll try popping in the "C Cup" inserts for the severely near-sighted, and hopefully that will help.

I'll report in later.

CONGRATS!!
What was your order number/location? I'm 59XXX in US, North Carolina... I can't wait...

Let me know what you think about Euro Trucker! :)
 
CONGRATS!!
What was your order number/location? I'm 59XXX in US, North Carolina... I can't wait...

Let me know what you think about Euro Trucker! :)

It was 568xx to New York.

I'm about to dive back in. I've decided to give A-cups + glasses another try, and really will fine tune the lens depth. I honestly think it would be fine for me, if the side straps were just a little looser.

Apparently my head is shaped like Stewie Griffin because the top strap has tons of play, but the sides, maxed out, are snug fits... and putting the OR on OVER my glasses is the issue, not have my glasses on once my face is in there.

If need be, I might chop off the side straps and make my own.
 
It was 568xx to New York.

I'm about to dive back in. I've decided to give A-cups + glasses another try, and really will fine tune the lens depth. I honestly think it would be fine for me, if the side straps were just a little looser.

Apparently my head is shaped like Stewie Griffin because the top strap has tons of play, but the sides, maxed out, are snug fits... and putting the OR on OVER my glasses is the issue, not have my glasses on once my face is in there.

If need be, I might chop off the side straps and make my own.

Just get a belt and strap it to your head! lol Hope the glasses thing works since I have a pair. We need in-depth review - try EVERYTHING... lol
 
Holy shit balls...

I'll post more lengthy and thorough thoughts tomorrow, but DAMN.

After realizing the lenses could be pushed "in" far more than I thought, I went back to A-cups, plus glasses. It was the secret sauce I needed because... wow.

So, i'm going to be another of these voices that I recall hearing before owning a Rift. I read impression after impression, and every time I thought... "Surely it can't be that cool. I mean... people are hyped and its normal to exaggerate... right?"

No... No it really isn't.

Until you've not only used Rift, BUT also found "Your" game... the experience doesn't set in.

I tried Rift-Coaster first. It was very, very cool... but the resolution and such keeps it from being quite as gut-churning as I expected. That said, mileage may vary. My mom and Dad respectively got ten seconds in, and their fear of heights made me stop immediately. I honestly had more fun tormenting my old parents than I did with the demo. ;-)

Tried Tuscany next. I was MUCH more impressed. You realize quickly that using the Rift, the illusion is very much linked to things you wouldn't suspect, like "scale". Tuscany felt like being in a different world. Amazing stuff. My first bit of OR stomach rumble did come from playing like an FPS however. Strafing, or adjusting your view with your mouse, until you have VR legs is indeed the moment you might start feeling off.

Blue Marble and Titans of Space were next... and I will, without shame, suggest that both, especially BM, brought a tear to my eye. It was a liberating, transcendent moment for a guy in a wheelchair since birth. The music, everything... It was a special experience which I will never forget.

And then... still feeling very, very little discomfort, I jumped into Minecrift. TERRIBLE and glorious mistake. It was "MY" Oculus Rift moment. The world... the world was infinitely huge, and I have never felt so fundamentally "in" a game before. For me, that play-session changes everything... everything... about how I want to experience virtual worlds in the future...

It was also Minecraft that gave me some serious motion sickness. Everyone says to skip it... to stick to guided tours for day 1 through 3 or so.... but I couldn't resist.

Jumping down into a huge cavern.... INSANE.

Other tiny observations... my lenses kept fogging up after extended use. Not sure what to do about that.

Also, downsampling from a higher resolution is a good idea, calibrating your IPD is a mandatory item, and yes... the resolution is mediocre, but it isn't a fanboy thing to say that your brain tunes it out. Ten minutes in Minecraft and I was too busy feeling the magnitude of what was around me to notice much else.

Listen... i'm not their target audience. I have a limited range of motion, can't look behind myself, etc... I'm not the guy who is going to reap the best benefits from VR. That said... this tech, in some fashion, be it soon, or further down the road, changes everything. This, in some perfected form is the next "internet". It feels like the thing that changes how we interact with media, learning (IE Titans of Space... wow, imagine kids on that field trip?), etc...
 
Is there a guide somewhere on how to get mirror's edge working with the rift? I think I've downloaded the requisite software, but can't figure out how to put it together.

edit: bumbled my way into semi success, but can't figure out how to calibrate the separation and my framerate is *horrendous*
 
Holy shit balls......etc...

Thanks for posting your thoughts! I was really curious to see what your experience was like from your perspective. The fact that the experience brought a tear to your eye is just a testament to the types of experiences which can be had outside of gaming. I can imagine there are plenty of people out there that can use this as an escape or therapeutic purposes.

Are you playing with a 360 controller or mouse/keyboard?

Great post!
 
Is there a guide somewhere on how to get mirror's edge working with the rift? I think I've downloaded the requisite software, but can't figure out how to put it together.

edit: bumbled my way into semi success, but can't figure out how to calibrate the separation and my framerate is *horrendous*

"Okay here's a step-by-step guide to set this up and save people a lot of trial and error:

1) Register here: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16424
2) Once registered, you can download the Vireio Beta 9+ here needed to get Mirror's Edge to work: http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=17069
3) Open Vireio, select Oculus Rift and Oculus Track in the dropdown options.
4) Leave Vireio running in the background
5) Launch MirrorsEdge.exe from 'mirrors edge/Binaries' in your Steamapps / common / mirrors edge folder.
6) The screen does not split or warp at first: this is normal. Go into Options.
7) On Controls, turn Mouse Sensitivity all the way down on Low and save this setting.
8) On Video, toggle Physics on/off (either way). Once you commit these changes to Video, it will prompt you to restart the game.
9) Restart from within the Options menu.
10) You'll see the game restarts with the view split and headtracking working. You can now play!

NOTE: While the stereoscopic alignment automatically syncs between each eye just fine with Beta 9+, there needs to be a way to adjust the FOV. By default it is too short. On a forum post, someone said they found this in the game files "FOVAngle=90.000000" -- I've seen '110' is recommended in the Vireio readme for other games. I'll try looking for this option in the game files, adjusting it if possible, and report back if that's successful.

UPDATE 1: Found the location of the FOVAngle variable: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\mirrors edge\Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini (config file) -- However changing the FOV variable and then launching the game will bring up an error saying the BaseEngine.ini is corrupt and to use the installed version. So you can't manually change the FOV it seems! If anyone knows how to get around this and successfully modify the FOV, please post!

UPDATE 2: Found this but haven't tried it yet (since I'm on an iMac with Win7 Bootcamp and don't have number keypad on the wireless keyboard). Also I get a Malware warning in Chrome when I try to get the Flawless Widescreen app, so be careful! http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Mirror's_Edge#Field_Of_View_.28FOV.29

So until there's a way to easily modify the FOV (probably from 90 to 110), it's rather uncomfortable to play Mirror's Edge yet, even though it does indeed work with the Rift. It's like permanently being forced to look through zoom aim in-world. I guess at this point, it's better than nothing!"


Source: https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=412
 
OH MY GOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH1UVXfUCXw&feature=player_detailpage&t=129

When i read how gamechanging Minecraft with dev kit Oculus is how will it be with consumer Oculus + Everquest Next + Everquest Next Landmark?

Landmark is like Minecraft 10.0 with Planetside 2 graphics :O

edit:

i forgot the best pic for this situation

ZaF0sLT.png
 
Thanks for the step by step, I got it working (didn't try the FOV stuff). And, while cool that it worked as well as it did given a 3rd party app, I don't think it worked well enough to be a good way to play the game for more than 10 minutes.

Even aside from FOV, the game just limits how much you can look around too much/too frequently (or tilts/bobs your view too much at other times) and lowering the mouse sensitivity all the way makes it a pain in the pass to actually turn around.

It was a very interesting experiment though, and I'm glad I tried it out to see how the rift actually wouldn't work well in certain situations without very different control/UI from the developers. An interesting lesson to experience.
 
Holy shit balls...

I'll post more lengthy and thorough thoughts tomorrow, but DAMN.

After realizing the lenses could be pushed "in" far more than I thought, I went back to A-cups, plus glasses. It was the secret sauce I needed because... wow.

So, i'm going to be another of these voices that I recall hearing before owning a Rift. I read impression after impression, and every time I thought... "Surely it can't be that cool. I mean... people are hyped and its normal to exaggerate... right?"

No... No it really isn't.

Welcome on board.

Trying to detail exactly how game changing and exciting VR is once you strap on a headset and get lost on a game for the first time without sounding like an over hyped exaggerating maniac is basically an impossible task. I did my best, but I know I came over like a raving lunatic at times, and I knew that only people who tried it for themselves would understand that I was being very measured and purposeful in what I said and how I said it.

I'm really happy that you're really happy. A tiny bit relieved since I gave you a little bit of a push over the edge into buying the devkit, but even I can't imagine what VR has been like for you.
 
So the Rift gonna eliminate triple screen setups for simulation games? I can't wait to play games like iRacing and older Flight Simulator games with the rift, damn release already..
 
I am beyond excited by this announcement. Seriously. This is the best piece of VR news since the rift was first unveiled. Holy shit!

Yea this is pretty incredible. I'm kind of speechless honestly. Didn't see this coming at all. It's like a nerd's wildest dream come true.
 
I have to say we have one in our office and I was so surprised. I expected it to be good and obviously the 360 vision is impressive but after going on a roller coaster demo it was the complete immersion that impressed me. It really did give me a sense of vertigo and speed that I was really shocked to experience as it was very unexpected :).
 
Hey FaustsBoon, I crossposted your great impressions over at /r/oculus – hope that's okay with you!

Not that anyone will see it now that the ÜBER news has dropped ... :)

John Carmack joins Oculus VR as CTO
This may not be true, but I feel like John Carmack did a lot of awesome things long ago, and then hasn't done much in the last several years. I thought it was quite weird about Doom 3 not showing up for the Oculus and the silence that went with it. I hope that this change both helps the Rift and gives Carmack some opportunities to do great things again. :)
 
Hey FaustsBoon, I crossposted your great impressions over at /r/oculus – hope that's okay with you!

Not that anyone will see it now that the ÜBER news has dropped ... :)

John Carmack joins Oculus VR as CTO

No problem! I feel so important, and super-cool seeing myself all over reddit. lol Shame i'm stuck as FaustBoon on GAF though... 99% of the world knows me as Neomaxim. :-p

As for the Carmack news... Wow. When one of the best engineers who has EVER graced our industry is a driving force behind your tech, you have a recipe for something very, very special.
 
Well said, FaustsBoon. Exciting times ahead for Oculus and gaming in general.

Also: When you write your full impressions, I invite you to crosspost it in the subreddit – I and probably many others would be very interested to hear your thoughts!
 
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